The Command to Help Our Enemy

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks notes, “The Sermon on the Mount tells us to love our enemies. That is a supremely beautiful idea, but it is not easy. Moses offers a more livable solution: help your enemy. You don’t have to love him, but you do have to assist him.”

Sacks draws this from the command in this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tetze, which states: “If you see your enemy’s donkey collapsing under its burden, do not pass by. You must help him release it” (Exodus 23:5). The Torah admonishes us that the innocent should not suffer because of our struggle with an enemy.

This past week, Israel has been involved in exactly this type of work. For the past 11 months since October 7, Israel has been facilitating humanitarian aid into Gaza. The success or failure of this endeavor has been the subject of much debate. But this past week, Israel initiated a program to inoculate 640,000 children under the age of ten in Gaza with the polio vaccine—administering 1.3 million doses in nine days.

To facilitate this, Israel helped deliver the vaccines into Gaza and agreed to temporary pauses in the ongoing war to ensure the safe implementation of the program.

Many assume this is an obvious course of action. But I wonder how many countries at war with another nation, entity, or, in Israel’s case, a terrorist organization committed to its destruction, would go to such lengths to aid those suffering in the conflict.

Despite the ongoing war, Israel is exemplifying the very words of this week’s Torah portion.

It is our hope and prayer that this conflict will soon come to an end and that the hostages still in captivity will be safely returned to their families.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Bradley Tecktiel